HQ$History - United States Special Operations Command

Kosovo
Operation ALLIED FORCE
NATO initiated Operation
ALLIED FORCE on 24 March
1999 to put an end to Serbia’s violent
repression of ethnic
Albanians in Kosovo. The 19-
nation ALLIED FORCE coalition
conducted an unrelenting bombing
campaign in Serbia and
Kosovo for 78 days, eventually
forcing Serbian President
Slobodan Milosevic to withdraw
his forces from the province and
stop the “ethnic cleansing” of
Kosovar Albanians. The bombing
strategy did not prevent Serbia
from forcing an estimated 800,000
refugees out of the country, producing
an enormous humanitarian
crisis in the neighboring states of Albania
and Macedonia. Furthermore, the air campaign
did not eliminate all of Serbia’s SAMs, which
managed to shoot down two U.S. aircraft.
SOF played a strategic role throughout the
Balkans region during ALLIED FORCE. In
Albania and Macedonia, CA units participated
in Operation SHINING HOPE, the humanitarian
assistance mission to aid Kosovar refugees.
CA elements coordinated large-scale humanitarian
relief efforts with U.S. government agencies
and international relief organizations, arranging
food, shelter, and medical care for the
refugee camps. SOF helicopters airlifted supplies
into refugee areas prior to the conventional
forces arriving in theater. Within Kosovo itself,
SOF aircraft dropped food and supplies to displaced
persons.
SOF also carried out an extensive PSYOP
campaign. From beyond Serb borders, EC-130E
Commando Solo aircraft transmitted daily
Serbian-language radio and television programs
into the area, informing the Serb people of their
government’s genocidal practices and televising
photographs of Kosovar refugees in Albania and
Macedonia. MC-130H aircraft dropped millions
of leaflets that decried the Serbs’ untenable situation,
warning them against committing war
crimes, and pointing out how Milosevic’s policies
were ruining their country.
F-16 CSAR, Operation ALLIED FORCE Members of the MH-60 aircrew
who successfully rescued an F-16 pilot shot down in Serbia.
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SOF also engaged in DA and SR missions.
AC-130 gunships attacked Serbian positions. In
Bosnia-Herzegovina, a SOF team destroyed a
stretch of railroad tracks to prevent Serbian
troop movements. SOF deployed near the
Albanian-Kosovo border and served as the “eyes
and ears” of TF HAWK. These Special Forces
soldiers and CCTs called in targeting information,
prevented friendly fire incidents, and
reported on fighting inside of Kosovo.
SOF successfully rescued the only two U.S.
pilots downed during ALLIED FORCE. In separate
missions, SOF CSAR teams rescued an F-
117A pilot who was shot down near Belgrade on
27 March and an F-16 pilot shot down in western
Serbia on 2 May. On each occasion, a mixture
of MH-53 Pave Low and MH-60 Pave Hawk
helicopters were used to retrieve the downed
fliers. These rescues had profound effects on the
outcome of the operation by denying Milosevic a
potent information operation campaign.
Operation JOINT GUARDIAN
On 9 June 1999, the government of the former
republic of Yugoslavia acceded to a “military
technical agreement” that ended its army’s occupation
of Kosovo. Operation JOINT
GUARDIAN, the mission led by NATO’s Kosovo
Force (KFOR) to enforce the peace agreement,
maintain public security, and provide humani-